Dando Ilaria, Dalla Pozza Elisa, Biondani Giulia, Cordani Marco, Palmieri Marta, Donadelli Massimo
Department of Life and Reproduction Sciences, Section of Biochemistry, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.
IUBMB Life. 2015 Sep;67(9):687-93. doi: 10.1002/iub.1426. Epub 2015 Sep 4.
Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a sub-population of quiescent cells endowed with self-renewal properties that can sustain the malignant behavior of the tumor mass giving rise to more differentiated cancer cells. For this reason, the specific killing of CSCs represents one of the most important challenges of the modern molecular oncology. However, their particular resistance to traditional chemotherapy and radiotherapy imposes a thorough understanding of their biological and biochemical features. The metabolic peculiarities of CSCs may be a therapeutic and diagnostic opportunity in cancer research. In this review, we summarize the most significant discoveries on the metabolism of CSCs describing and critically analyzing the studies supporting either glycolysis or mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation as a primary source of energy for CSCs.
癌症干细胞（CSCs）是一群具有自我更新特性的静止细胞亚群，能够维持肿瘤块的恶性行为，产生更多分化的癌细胞。因此，特异性杀伤癌症干细胞是现代分子肿瘤学最重要的挑战之一。然而，它们对传统化疗和放疗具有特殊抗性，这就需要深入了解其生物学和生化特征。癌症干细胞的代谢特性可能是癌症研究中的一个治疗和诊断契机。在这篇综述中，我们总结了关于癌症干细胞代谢的最重要发现，描述并批判性地分析了支持糖酵解或线粒体氧化磷酸化作为癌症干细胞主要能量来源的研究。
